back to article Apple, Spotify, Amazon: All your Cloud are belong to us, says firm

A San Jose company has claimed that it owns the technology used by Apple in its iCloud, by Spotify in its streaming service and by Amazon in its Cloud Player. It has filed three separate IP lawsuits against the firms for making digital data available to people over a computer network. Innovative Automation LLC, whose business …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Eastern Texas

    Yeah, home of the "hangem high regardless" juries, cheek by jowl with the Judge Roy Bean juries, but further downhill (east Texas ya know).

    Oh, and the lawyers also wear jingle bobs to enhance that jingly noise of the spur rowels. Battle rattle for the quiche quaffing legal types down there.

  2. Herby

    "Method" patents:

    BAD!

    One of these days, they will (attempt to) patent a silly way to score a goal in soccer (football), or a touchdown in football (I don't know what the UK calls American football) and then when the Dallas Cowboys try to use said method, they get sued (of course in the eastern district of Texas) and maybe they will get some sense knocked into them (doubtful, but we can hope!).

    Until then (*SIGH*)

    1. SD24576

      Re: "Method" patents:

      We just call it American football, so you were spot on!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Method" patents:

      Dallas Cowboys - a method to score touchdowns ?

      Truly an Orphan Work.

    3. TheOceanian
      Thumb Up

      Re: "Method" patents:

      We call it American Football ........ :-)

    4. Grikath

      Re: "Method" patents:

      Definition from EVE Online ( at least the crowd I hung out with..)

      Euro-style soccer = foot + ball = football

      US-style football= hand + egg = handegg.

      This went down well across 24 time zones and a score of continents uncontested , so it must be the only right and proper denomination of the sports.

      (Both of which are nothing but playfights for testosterone-overloaded jocks who cannot appreciate the placidity of a nice cellar dwelling.)

    5. Dantarian
      Joke

      Re: "Method" patents:

      American football is also sometimes known as turn-based rugby ;-)

      1. The First Dave
        Pirate

        Re: "Method" patents:

        Not by anyone who actually appreciates Rugby Union or even Rugby League - GridIron is a pale imitation of either.

  3. davefb
    WTF?

    how can this POSSIBLY

    relate to spotify or itunes or whatever ?

    It's a nice idea for err delivering cd-r's, but how can this relate to what digital music does ?

    epic-patent-fail.

    err herby, american football :)

  4. TonyHoyle

    "Method and System for Supplying Products from Pre-Stored Digital Data in Response to Demands Transmitted via Computer Network"

    Lolwut?

    FTP predates that by some years

    UUCP even further

    How in *hell* did they get a patent on that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not like FTP

      If you actually read the patents, they describe a way to remotely burn data onto a CD-R, affix a label, and then mail it to a customer. So while not like FTP at all, it is still tremendously silly.

      1. Ian Michael Gumby
        Boffin

        Re: Not like FTP

        Agreed.

        Still enough prior art as well as trivial.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Not like FTP

        I haven't read the patent -and honestly doubt I would understand it if I did- but what you described is a business process is it not?

        Instead of letting the user do that work on their own PC, you are in the business of doing it for them for a fixed amount!

  5. Arctic fox
    Terminator

    The moment I read the headline I just knew..........

    .........by means of some strange reverberation in the force that they had filed in East Texas. It was as if I suddenly heard a billion customer's voices calling out in terror and pain as.................

  6. The Brave Sir Robin
    Facepalm

    Oh FFS

    See subject.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "are belong"

    Engrish a second language?

    1. SD24576

      Re: "are belong"

      It's a play on a popular internet meme:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

    2. Arctic fox
      Happy

      Re: "are belong" Never mind, I did not understand that reference* either........

      .............until a kindly disposed member of our little congregation (like the one below your post) showed me the light. :)

      *Another thread, different topic.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Windows

        Re: "are belong" Never mind, I did not understand that reference* either........

        Am I now so old that I must hear about Internet People who don't know about All Your Base?

        The horror. The horror.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    errrrr there's more to a patent than its title.

    > "Method and System for Supplying Products from Pre-Stored Digital Data in Response to Demands Transmitted via Computer Network"

    > ...How in *hell* did they get a patent on that.

    errrr - they didn't. It's just the title. You have to read the patent to see the alleged novelty of their particular idea/method/system. (Look at the patent, jump to Claim One, and if you find that ridiculous, fine, attack.)

    1. Gerhard den Hollander

      Re: errrrr there's more to a patent than its title.

      The only novelty I see is where they claim a patent to where the data is actually written to a DVD/PMP/CD/media, everything else in their patent could be priorarted by (say) a webbrowser playing a youtube clip.

      And even for that, one could probably argue that using k3b to burn Mp3s to an audio disk, where the mp3s reside on an NFS share would consist of prior art.

      (whether the argument is valid I dont know, IANAL)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: errrrr there's more to a patent than its title.

      The patent appears to be for a system whereby the customer electronically orders a CD duplicator to make them a physical disk and mail it to them.

      The case appears to be about a technology not covered by the patent brought against companies who don't offer the patented service (and couldn't without the big media companies throwing their toys out of the pram).

      So yes, it's fucking ridiculous.

    3. mccp

      Re: errrrr there's more to a patent than its title.

      I've just looked at the patent claims linked in the article.

      They relate to a system where an order is remotely sent to a processing system that then records data to a CD-R and prints an address label.

      1. I wrote the software for just such a system back in about 2001, the patent claims could be taken from the proposal we wrote for the customer.

      2. At the time this 'method' would have been obvious to anyone with the barest glimmer of wit. It would never have occurred to me that I had invented something worthy of a patent.

      3. This system (recording to CD-Rs) is now obsolete.

      Ergo, these patents are ridiculous.

      1. The Cube

        Re: mccp - errrrr there's more to a patent than its title.

        If you still have that document may I suggest you make yourself known to the defense teams so that they can pay to file with the Patent Orofice and have the patent in question re-assessed and hopefully terminated?

  9. MrXavia
    FAIL

    not read the entire patent.. but Obvious and Prior-art spring to mind...

    Doesn't a web browser serve this purpose? FTP? the whole bloody web?

  10. Fuzz

    Why bother?

    First up, why bother patenting this? It's a system where a customer can order some music or other data and at that point the data is written to a CD-R and posted out to the customer.

    Thing is years ago the companies that make the CDs worked out roughly how many they needed to make and then made that number. That works out cheaper than maintaining the equipment required to automatically produce CDs on demand.

    So what we have here are patents for a process that is

    1. Obvious

    2. Unnecessary

    3. Nothing to do with an on-demand music streaming service

    Also, Internet radio stations.

  11. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Meh

    A, civil servants and the tragedy of the commons.

    Looks like USPTO again shat all over everything due to overall laziness and the need to collect some cash.

  12. Mad Chaz
    Holmes

    Soooo this is pretty much another idiot with an overly broad/non-original patent trying to sue the world plus dog?

    I really hope one of those days, those people get what they deserve ...

  13. Mark Stanbrook

    If the patent was even targetted at digital delivery over the 'net

    ... then British Telecom would have prior art, although I doubt they would have filed for a patent in the US.

    It's just one example and I expect many others have done it too but back in '96 BT had an on-demand video service from an archive of laser disks style storage which has direct parallels to Spotify. It was only in Westminster and only on one of the two cable TV networks they had in the region so very few ever got to see it.

  14. robert_raw
    1. James Hughes 1

      @robert raw

      I think the site you are looking for is YouTube.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The patents are about automating the burning of of custom CDs and DVDs that are ordered on-line, something that peoplesound.com were doing several years before these were filed. (http://www.zdnet.com/peoplesound-com-a-music-revolution-3002072726/)

  16. PatrickE

    Will it never end?

    Inane patents and law suits yet again. You'd think Apple, Spotify and Amazon would like this sort of suit to end - except their snouts are firmly in the trash patent trough as well. End of the day, we all pay the lawyer fees one way or another. Joy :)

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